What is the principle of “muscle confusion,” and how does it benefit me?
Neuromuscular adaptation to exercise, most notably resistance exercise, can be summarized as thus: muscles, when faced with resistance, recruit as many motor-units as necessary to overcome the resistance. The nervous system responds by “re-wiring” itself, to more efficiently be able to perform the same work again with less motor-units. Muscle cells are fortified with increases in myofibrils within the cells and an increase in the size of the cross-section of the sarcolemma (muscle size). Typically speaking, after 8 weeks of repeating the same types of work loads, the neuromuscular system will have rewired itself to a better level of efficiency; after which point the adaptation is heavily focused on myofibril production and increases in the cross-section of sarcolemma. Studies also show that resistance exercise also leads to similar improvements in bone density, in the connective tissue and even in the nervous system’s performance. The principle of “muscular confusion” is to take advant
